Arcanum: Behind the Scenes, pt. 5

Share.

Your design. Your ideas. Just the way you want it. All about the World Editor in today's update.

By IGN Staff

Here we are, back again for another behind the scenes look at Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. On the plate for this week is a bit of a look at the extensive World Editor system where you'll have a chance to build your own campaigns.

And don't forget about the contest going on right now that could land you as a character in the final game. All you have to do to get this nifty prize is go to the Arcanum contest page, sign up there and then solve the puzzles found at the bottom of each article by visiting the official Arcanum website to find the answers.

Create Your Own Games!

Ready

Have you ever sat around with your friends and discussed the perfect idea for game? Or have you ever played a game and thought to yourself, "It would have been so cool if they just changed a few things." Do you have an idea for a dungeon or town that would just blow your friends away? Well, now is your chance to show off what you can do.

Set

Here at Troika Games, we've made an enormous RPG with a very small group of people. Early in development, we knew that the only way we could do this was to make quick, easy to use tools for world creation, and that's exactly what we did.

Furthermore, we've decided to share these tools with anyone who purchases Arcanum! We're giving you the power to create your own custom worlds filled with oceans, forests, mountains, and even cities, all in a matter of minutes! When your done, you can send your world to your friends and play it together online.

Go!

Welcome to the infinite possibilities of Arcanum's World Editor! World-Ed will provide a way for anyone to create their own game modules with ease. Using Arcanum's simple editing tools, with their intuitive icon-driven interface, will allow even first time gamers to design awesome modules!

All the interfaces are point-and-click or drag-and-drop, making editing simple. We've even included a function that will allow you to create a map over a LAN with your friends simultaneously! And sharing the maps you make is a breeze because they are small enough to fit on a floppy disk.

With Arcanum's World Editing tools, the possibilities are endless. You can create continents by spraying down large areas of pre-generated forest, swamps, snowy plains and more. Want a tropical forest in the middle of your snowy wasteland? Then zoom in, select from a large list of ground tiles and spray down the new ones you want. Watch how they properly transition automatically from ocean to desert to frozen tundra automatically.

Ready to build a town? Create buildings simply by dragging out a box. Place a door or window by simply clicking on the walls where you want them to appear! It's as simple as that.

You can use any piece of art in Arcanum, including spell effects, monsters, even castles to flesh out your world. And you can modify any creature or item in the game! Place down a regular rat, then scale him up 200%, give him the ability to shoot fireballs and rename him a "Giant Lava Rat."

Place any item and edit it with the abilities you want. Make a sword that turns people to stone! Make a shield that deals an opponent electrical damage when struck! Make a staff that disintegrates everything on the screen! It's all up to you.

Using .wav and .mp3 files, you can easily drop in custom speech for your characters, or sound effects for the areas you create. Want to add special movies or still shots that play at certain points in your module? It's all possible with the Arcanum Editor.

And the control doesn't stop there! You can edit just about anything, even the lighting. You can set it up so that the entire world glows a dim shade of green, but only around midnight when the zombies rise from their graves!

Or maybe you're the tricky type? You can set up elaborate traps throughout your module. You better be careful picking that chest. One wrong step and every door in the castle will lock itself tight! Handle that door with care. If you open it the wrong way you just might find yourself teleported to room full of Giant Spiders!

We believe that the tools that will ship with Arcanum will truly revolutionize the game industry by putting the power to create in the hands of the gamer.